The government has also taken a series of measures to promote the low-cost housing sector, such as lower housing income and lower prices of units, the minister said at a meeting in the northern city of Tangiers.

The government announced in 2008 a scheme to build an additional 130,000 social housing units by 2012, for an estimated value of 15.5 billion dirhams ($ 1.9 billion).

Within the framework of this low-cost housing programme, the Al Omrane Group, Morocco’s state-owned real estate company, broke ground in 2008 on 22,000 units, and committed to build another 129,000 residences, with a maximum sales price of 140,000 dirham ($ 17,000) in the coming four years.

These programmes are the latest in a series of national housing plans aimed at providing homes for Morocco’s low-income families. In 2004, the government launched Cities Without Slums programme (Villes Sans Bidonvilles, VSB) 21.4bn dirham ($ 2.7 bn), which is looking to shift some 280,000 households from the shantytowns into permanent residences. (MAP)
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